Pike and Perch in an Aquaruim 1910 - 1920

Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof made this painting of pike and perch in an aquarium, and it’s now here in the Rijksmuseum. The whole thing is muted, like an underwater dream. Dijsselhof really gets that quality of looking *through* something, not just *at* it. Notice the textures, how the rocky outcrops sort of loom, solid but hazy. Then there are the fish themselves – those perch with their stripy little backs, how they hover in the water. It's like the brushstrokes themselves are liquid, just gliding and blending. I keep coming back to this one pike, right at the top. It's staring out with this knowing look, like it's in on a joke we don't quite get. Maybe the joke is how silly it is to try and capture something so alive and fluid in a still painting. It reminds me a little of Odilon Redon, that same interest in the unseen, in what lurks beneath the surface. Art’s funny like that, always hinting at something more.